A few years ago, I did a detailed review of a set of headphones by Jabra and Microsoft, both for work use and personal use.
Since then I have used my Jabra Evolve 65T earbuds extensively for my general personal stuff, the Surface Headphones (now updated to v2) on planes etc. (because the noise cancelling is excellent), with the Jabra Evolve 75T (also now at v2) at my workstation when I can’t use my desk mic and speakers (usually when my wife is on a call in her adjacent office). My daughter acquired the lovely Jabra Evolve 80s; oh well!
Is additional noise cancelling is important?
It’s worth noting that most of my business audio use is via Microsoft Teams and that has built in background noise suppression. So, is additional noise cancelling is important?
The background noise problem is often other people talking
It turns out it is. Standard noise cancelling technology is designed to attenuate the sounds of passing cars, desk fans, the RAF playing with their afterburners and the sound of the Amazon delivery folk pressing the doorbell; all this to better capture people’s voices. Which is great except when the background noise problem is other people talking…
Enter the Blucalm UCH30
This is a young company who have identified the challenge of background voices. They have developed a compact, innovative (allegedly AI, but isn’t everything these days) noise cancelling technology, supported by 20 patents. It purports to largely eliminate unwelcome voices intruding into your online meetings – colleagues, wives, children, all of whom are usually unaware that you are on a call – in other words the sort of thing we all face regardless of our work location. Blucalm kindly sent me a pair of samples to evaluate for this review.
Noise Cancelling performance
Blucalm claim that of 96% background noise (especially voices) are blocked. It seemed only fair to test this.
I set up the test by recording a series of calls using Microsoft Teams, with and without Team’s inbuilt background noise suppression enabled. To simulate background conversations, I set my office Alexa jabbering away playing a podcast at uncomfortably high volume. It was so loud I struggled to hear myself talk.
With Teams suppression on and my usual microphones (Jabra Evolve 75T wireless headset, and a Sansom USB desk mic) the speech from Alexa was noticeably reduced, but still very intrusive.
Using the UCH30, however, was a revelation. If you listened carefully, you could just make out a murmur in the background. With Alexa doing anything quieter than shouting at me the background noise was inaudible. It’s very impressive.
Alexa was jabbering away so loudly I struggled to hear myself talk. With the UCH30, if call participants listened carefully they could just about make out a murmur in the background.
With Alexa doing anything quieter than shouting at me the background noise was inaudible. It’s very impressive.
There is a slight caveat. People on the other end of the call might have an undisturbed experience, but the current design does little to protect the wearer from the intrusion. I would prefer an over ear design for this reason.
Form Factor
Another reason, apart from acoustic separation between the wearer and their environment, that I prefer over ear designs is that I often find the headband is over-sprung with on-ear headsets, causing ear discomfort within an hour or use. I am pleased to find this isn’t a problem with the UCH30s. I used them several times for extended Teams sessions, running to over three hours, without any discomfort. They are superior to my Jabra 75s in this regard. They remained comfortable in use, being lightweight with earpieces that are gentle and well cushioned. The mic. boom and earpieces are easy to adjust to the optimum position.
They benefit from a red ‘busy’ light in both earpieces to help alert colleagues etc. that you really are in a call and shouldn’t be disturbed, and not just listening to music. I would love to have a Bluetooth, rechargeable desktop/stickup repeater as well to put on my office door or wherever. Maybe that’s a future accessory, ideally with a couple of colours and some further integration with my Presence status in Microsoft Office.
Wired vs BT
Having mentioned Bluetooth, Blucalm are working on a full wireless microphone, I am told, but it takes a while to get certified. Transmitter regulations, testing and all that. So the UCH30 is a cabled microphone. I had a bit of an issue getting the cable routed in such a way that vibration from the cable rubbing my jumper didn’t transfer as mechanical vibration into the right earpiece. The benefits of wireless are self apparent and the UCH30 was no worse than other wired microphones in this regard, but I’d pay more for the wireless option when it arrives.
Build quality
The UCH30 is exactly what you would expect at this price point. They look and feel well built, but not premium. Definitely not Surface Headphone or Jabra Evolve 80 quality, but better than the budget Amazon devices some people are expected to use.
They look the part, appear professional rather than pointlessly fashionable. They drew no comments or raised eyebrows from the hundreds (yes, that many) of people who have seen me wearing them.
Sound quality
The purpose of hifi quality headphones is to faithfully reproduce the nuances of your choice of music and to immerse you in it. ‘Horses for courses’, as they say.
Blucalm’s UCH30s are not aiming to serve the hifi niche. For their intended purpose, i.e. a conference call headset, they are good. They are, in audiophile jargon, quite forward sounding; bright, clear and detailed in the frequency range required for hearing people speak. Any limitations to bass extension or high frequency control are irrelevant. I found them to do their job well, articulating speech clearly, in an unfatiguing manner. I have no complaints at all.
Controls
The controls are built into an inline widget on the USB audio cable (you can see it clearly in hte first picture above). They are simple enough: volume up and down, connect / end call and microphone active/mute. A red LED lets you know when the microphone is muted and a green LED confirms that you are in a call. My understanding is that the noise cancelling processor is built into this controller, which presumably has a small microphone of its own to sample the ambient sound and apply the filtering. I suspect that the control shouldn’t be hidden under a jacket or cardigan for this reason, though I didn’t test for that.
I would have liked the buttons to have tactile feedback in the form of raised patterns for each button to make it easy to select the correct function by touch alone.
The controls work well with the Microsoft Teams interface, correctly operating mute, volume etc. They are not officially certified yet, but performed flawlessly.
Unlike the Microsoft Surface Headphones, there is no ability to control the noise cancelling level; it’s always on at optimum noise reduction. I can imagine a few scenarios where being able to adjust the level might be useful, but I’m not convinced it’s needed. It’s important to remember that the UCH30s are all about eliminating background noise for other people; if you want ambient noise on the call for some reason you would choose a desk mic.
Conclusion
My office is a benign environment without the incessant background many people have to endure. Nevertheless, I found the UCH30 headset a great addition to my collection of audio tools. I host and participate in a lot of high profile Teams, Zoom etc. meetings, many of which are recorded and published online. I am always concerned about bleed-through of calls and conversations from the adjoining office, or for the otherwise welcome cries of “ Do you want a cuppa?”. The UCH30 allay this concern and are my go to device for those calls. They are comfortable to wear, provide clear audio to me and to the other ends of the call and are easy to get on with.
You can, of course, get them from Amazon.
Novia Works Ltd 